“I’ve accepted it as a manifestation of my insecurities. I suspect your dreams of Tohon are similar. Perhaps a way for you to express your fears.”

His explanation made sense. Yet I couldn’t shake the truth in Tohon’s words. “Sounds very logical, Ryne. But have you really accepted it?”

He huffed. “No. I wish he’d shut up and get the hell out of my dreams.”

“I could give you a sleeping draft.”

“No, thank you. I have to be able to wake up if needed.” He stood and examined the map. “What does Tohon say in your dreams?” he asked in a casual manner, but his arm muscles tightened.

“He gloats. He goads me. But one time he warned me.”

Ryne jerked his head, meeting my gaze. “How?”

I explained about the ambush. “And he hinted that there might be older children who survived his experiments and who might be healers by now.”

“Both dreams are easy to explain. You must have heard a noise while you slept, alerting you to the danger, and the idea of other healers is just your own intelligence working through the possibilities. Which we should consider. Come on.” He strode over to his work table.

Curious, I followed him.

Pulling a piece of parchment and grabbing his stylus, he sat in his chair. “Let’s see. Tohon helped at the Healer’s Guild for a year after we’d graduated from boarding school. I suspect this was when he began experimenting with the Death Lily toxin and putting the clues together about the source of your magic.” He wrote dates on the parchment. “That was about five years ago. Plenty of time for him to inject the toxin into a child.”

“Except at that time, the plague hadn’t spread all over the Fifteen Realms. He couldn’t just inject it into a patient or child without someone noticing. Unless...”

“Unless what?”

“He claimed it was an attempt to find a cure for the plague. The healers’ desperation increased as more people sickened.”

“Or he had a willing subject,” Ryne added. “Someone working with him?”

“Possible. But then why wasn’t this person helping in his infirmary? Why didn’t I meet him or her? And why did Cellina try to kidnap me?”

“All good questions. Perhaps Cellina doesn’t know about this healer. Maybe Tohon kept his or her identity a secret.”

“But Sepp would need to know. Are you saying this mystery healer and Sepp are working together?”

“It’s just speculation.”

“Based on a dream conversation.”

“You did spend time in his castle, Avry. You might have noticed something while there and your dream is just making the connections for you.”

“Or I could have read something in that crate Belen found in the Healer’s Guild’s record room.” Mentioning Belen’s name reminded me that I hadn’t asked Ryne if he’d learned anything about Poppa Bear.